What Does 1 Timothy 6:1 Mean?
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and his teaching not be spoken against.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.THE KEY
The verse makes God’s public name vulnerable to the conduct of the person with the least power in the relationship.
THE MEANING
You encounter a command laid on the person under the yoke: count your own masters worthy of all honour. Its stated purpose is that God’s name and teaching not be spoken against. The burden rests on the servant; the verse says nothing here about reciprocal honor or removing the yoke.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that a sacred name stays untouched by the conduct associated with it: here, God’s name and teaching can be spoken against through conduct in this relationship.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
ónoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνοματ-
Name; the public identity by which someone is known.
Here, “name” is more than a label: it is God’s publicly known identity, exposed to speech shaped by the lives associated with it. The phrase “and his doctrine” widens the stakes: both the nature named and the teaching attached to it can be spoken against.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: to name, call by name
ὀνομάζω
The act of naming makes an identity public, as God’s name is in this verse.
onomastos: named, notable
ὀνομαστός
This branch links a name with a recognized public identity, the very identity the verse says can be slandered.
βλασφημῆται
blasphēmētai
GROWS FROM
βλασφημ-
To speak abusively against, defame, or slander.
“spoken against” in this verse is blasphēmētai. The verb points to public speech against God’s name and teaching, not private doubt. Its passive form leaves the speaker unstated, while the purpose clause makes the conduct demanded here relevant to whether that speech arises.
ALSO GROWS
blasphēmia: slander, abusive speech
βλασφημία
The noun names the kind of public speech the verse seeks to prevent.
blasphēmos: slanderous, speaking abusively
βλάσφημος
This branch describes speech that turns a name or teaching into an object of public reproach.
τιμῆς
timēs
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
Value, price, honor.
“worthy of all honor” in this verse is timēs. τιμή can mean honor and value: the command calls the masters worthy of full valuation even within a relation named as a yoke. That pairing keeps the imbalance visible, the person under domination is assigned the act of granting honor.
ALSO GROWS
timaō: to honor, treat as valuable
τιμάω
The verb shows τιμή as an act of assigning regard; the servant is told to render that regard.
timios: precious, valuable
τίμιος
This related word links honor with value, clarifying what “all honour” asks the servant to ascribe.
THE PATTERN
Conduct places a religious name at stake in public speech, either opening it to slander or leading others to honor it.
Yet because by this deed you have given the enemies of the LORD great cause to spurn, the child who is born to you also shall surely die.For the nature of God is spoken against among the nations through you, as it stands written.Let your light shine like this before people, that they may perceive your good works and give weight to your Father in the heavens.THE THREAD
For the nature of God is spoken against among the nations through you, as it stands written.Romans uses the same Greek verb, βλασφημέω, and says God’s name is blasphemed “through you.” It makes explicit the link compressed here: conduct by those associated with God can become the route by which the name is spoken against.
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